Industry News

CommonWell, Carequality Take Step Toward Interoperability

EHR interoperability (or lack thereof) has been a key point of debate in discussions about the future of health care and patient engagement.

Two of the largest private-sector interoperability initiatives, CommonWell Health Alliance and Carequality, recently announced an agreement to work together to foster better health IT connectivity. Together, members and participants of the two organizations make up more than 90% of the acute-care EHR market — including such heavy-hitters as Epic, Athenahealth and Cerner.

To achieve nationwide interoperability that truly improves patient care, two things are required: collaboration across the healthcare industry and the will to take real action … We believe this connectivity between CommonWell and Carequality will continue to move the country forward on its path to achieving nationwide data exchange by bringing together such a sizable majority of providers and patients that there will be no turning back for American health care.

The joint initiative’s primary focus will be enabling providers to seamlessly request and share medical records across systems. With more than 15,000 organizations currently part of either CommonWell or Carequality, interoperability looks to be making great strides.